Anger feels righteous while it lasts. The useful moment comes later, when the regret shows up and the story has gone quiet.

What the research says

Work developing a standard measure of guilt and shame proneness separates guilt about an action from shame about the self, and shows the two predict different behaviour, with guilt the one tied to putting things right. So the bad feeling after an outburst is not all one thing, and which sort it is matters for what happens next. This was measure development in general samples, not a study of when to time a session.

Strength of evidence: one line of research. A single study, or a theoretical account.